GLASS NERVE | alex rider

Six.

( tw : torture, blood )

CHAPTER SIX
STARMAN

  Alex Rider had been kidnapped.

He couldn't believe he was kidnapped.

In the back of his hazy mind, he thought about what would've happened if Bella had taken him up on his offer to take her home. Would they have targeted someone else? Or would they have taken them both? He'd seen enough documentaries to know what usually happened to girls when they were kidnapped. She could hold her own for a bit, but since Bella never wore a helmet, she would've hit her head hard and lost all sense of direction.

Suddenly, he was glad she turned him down.

Alex never thought he'd think such a thing but there he sat, bloody and confused, celebrating rejection from his girl crush.

"Who did your Uncle Ian work for?"

Alex wasn't stupid, he knew not to answer the man's question truthfully. The whole point of being a spy was that you didn't reveal that you were a spy. If he told the truth and this man held his word, he would find himself trapped in another dangerous situation when MI6 got word he talked.

"He works for a bank."

Alex, fortunately, knew very little about kidnap-hostage situations and how they worked. This was turning from just some basic kidnapping to a hostage situation.

James was held hostage once, Alex recalled. They held him for money down somewhere in South America but couldn't get any from him because they could only get in contact with his 9 year old daughter. He had no idea how he got out though, he never got that far when he told the story since he was always drunk.

"Let's try something easier." The man spoke with a deep and serious tone that managed to frighten Alex quite a bit more than he already was. He was a dark character, dressed in all black with a violent expression in his eyes. Someone who would do whatever it took to get the answer out of him. "What is Point Blanc?"

He wasn't going to answer that. "It's where you shoot someone at close range." Alex was practically asking for it now. Teasing the beast. Dangling meat right in front of it. "Point-blank range."

The man, clearly aggravated by Alex's joke, grabbed the stack of papers clipped together in between them and flipped it over. There was a big picture of Ian including an array of information both personal and public. He read the small print as best as he could while the man talked.

"Your uncle, he worked for the British government. He was a spy." He said. Alex sat back. "And I think you are too."

"Look. I don't feel good. I hit my head in the van." Alex eyed the cup of water and plated sandwich next to the man. "Maybe if I could gave some water or something."

Fortunately, the man had enough sympathy to pass him the cup, so he drank all of it. He was thirsty.

"What is Point Blank."

It was funny to think that man believed a simple cup of water would be Alex's undoing.

"Look, I have no idea what you're talking about. You've got the wrong person." Suddenly the bag was over his head again and he was yanked up from the chair.